Description
Slow Death is too often forgotten for being one of the most important comic book anthologies of the 1970s, and its stories often resonate with perfect relevance to the problems we face in society today.
The inaugural issue of Slow Death (it was titled Slow Death Funnies only for its first issue) featured major underground comic artists skewering the auto industry, corporate polluters, overpopulation, litterbugs and even (presciently) the soft drink industry. Slow Death Funnies was quite befitting for a comic book intended to raise funds for an ecology center. The second issue abandoned the strict environmental agenda of the first to present four science-fiction tales set in the future, with various spaceship travel and post-nuclear-disaster plots. The futuristic science-fiction stories continued to appear in subsequent issues, but they were slowly replaced by all manner of comics, from educational stories about atomic power and cancer to comics about animal rights and war. The underlying theme was always about what the human race was doing to damage the native planet and fuck up our minds and bodies.
(Apr. 1970) — contributors: Gary Grimshaw, Dave Sheridan, Jim Osborne, Jim Evans, Greg Irons, Gilbert Shelton, Fred Schrier, Rory Hayes/Jeffery Hayes, R. Cobb, Jaxon, Kim Deitch, Robert Crumb, Tony Auth, Randy Tuten
(Dec. 1970) — contributors: Jaxon, Sheridan, Osborne, Richard Corben
(Nov. 1971) — contributors: Corben, Sheridan, Osborne, Jaxon, Larry Welz, Irons
(Nov. 1972) — contributors: Corben, Sheridan, George Metzger, Tom Veitch/Irons, Jaxon, Eric Kimball
(Apr. 1973) — “We agree Nix–un!” issue; contributors: Rand Holmes, Sheridan, Veitch/Irons, Charles Dallas, Corben
(Jan. 1974) — “Call of the Wild” issue; contributors: Holmes, Ron Turner/Holmes, Dallas, Metzger, Jaxon
(Winter 1976/1977) — “True War Tales” issue; contributors: William Stout, Jaxon, Irons, George DiCaprio/John Edgar, William York Wray, Errol McCarthy, Melinda Gebbie, Irons
(July 1977) — Greenpeace issue; contributors: Stout, Irons, Brenda Bernu, Michael J. Becker, Doug Hansen, Michael T. Gilbert, Sam Wray, Roger Brand, Shelby Sampson, Dennis Ellefson, Tim Boxell
(Aug. 1978) — “Our Friend Mr. Atom” issue; contributors: Irons, Becker, Ellefson, McCarthy, Boxell
(Nov. 1979) — “Cancer special”; contributors: Irons, Ellefson, Guy Colwell, DiCaprio/Warren Greenwood, Janet Abbey/Irons, Boxell
(1992) — “Energy!” issue; contributors: Irons, Veitch/Irons, Alan Moore/Bryan Talbot, Peter Sinclair, Graham Manley, R. Waldmire, Edgar, Greenwood, Wally Wood
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